I think these things are amusing, especially thanks to Twitter. I have to admit I don’t know too much about Justin Bieber, however, I should also admit I have no idea what so many people find entertaining about Bette Midler. I just don’t get the appeal.

Of course the gay presses…because they are gay presses…put a spin on this one and they’re making it look as if Bieber got slammed by Midler when it really was the other way around. After Beiber’s dad tweeted about his son’s penis size, as a joke, as sarcasm, Midler had to open her big mouth and add something serious about his dad’s parenting skills. Because, you know, only Bette Midler can do sarcasm. No one else can.

So, Bieber replied to Midler with this, and he was defending his dad:

“This Britt Meddler,” Bieber mused to Billboard. “I don’t even know who that is, honestly. I wanted to immediately say ‘Who is this lady?’, but then I’m just fueling this negativity. I do feel the photo was an invasion of my privacy. I felt super violated. My dad made light of it, but I don’t think that’s sick and twisted. It was funny. Dads are going to be dads.”

Say what you will about Bieber but he was defending his dad this time.

Oprah, Gayle, and Chick-Fil-A

This one is even more entertaining than the Beiber/Britt Midler article. Evidently, Oprah and her “best friend” Gayle are supporting Chick-Fil-A and the gay presses are wondering WTF is up with that. Actually, they’re going berserk.

But not everyone is pleased with the Oprah machine throwing its support behind such a vocally antigay company.

“Very disappointed you & the magazine support this awful company,” one person commented on the photo.

“I thought better of you than this @gayleking,” another person said.

“How disappointing. A company like Chick Fil A should not be supported,” a third person added.

I have to admit that I’ve never once had Chick-Fil-A. We don’t have them in Bucks County, at least not anywhere near New Hope. I would imagine there are a few between New Hope and New York City I could check out, and one did just open in Manhattan, however, after hearing about how antigay they are I honestly never wanted to go out of my way to support them as a customer.

Evidently, Oprah and her “best friend” Gayle don’t agree.

Activists are calling for a boycott of O Magazine and I’m wondering who still reads magazines in the first place.

I think the entire concept of PrEP is a good idea because it seems to be helping a lot of gay men. And that’s as far as I want to take it here. I know there’s controversy surrounding it, however, I hear more good things about it than bad. And I hear them on a one to one basis most of the time.

I’ve even incorporated PrEP into my next Rainbow Detective book because it fit so well into the story line with Blair and Proctor.

Here’s a piece about a guy who’s doing PrEP and he’s speaking very candidly about his life.

This guy on PrEP likes to party and he’s not gonna let you slut-shame him. Public Health Solutions has released a pro-PrEP ad and, well, see for yourself.

We’re all about getting the word out, but we can’t believe nobody caught the link between a young, hot gay guy saying he “likes to party” and the link to PnP (i.e. crystal meth) that’s so closely aligned with “partying.”

I’m really busy with family things this week, so here’s an older post from 2012. I think it shows some of the changes we’ve been through.

There’s been a lot written about SCOTUS and gay marriage, so this is from my inbox from Freedom to Marry:

Just moments ago, the U.S. Supreme Court set the clock ticking on the important work we need to do to secure our next wave of wins in 2013.

The Court announced that it will hear a challenge to the so-called Defense of Marriage Act, the federal law that discriminates against legally married same-sex couples, and to California’s Proposition 8.

Ryan,it is urgent that we now create the climate that will embolden the Supreme Court to strike down DOMA and Prop 8 as unconstitutional. We know from the Roadmap to Victory national strategy exactly how to do that: win more states and win over more hearts and minds.Please join us in this essential work by making a donation today:http://freedomtomarry.org/SCOTUS

These big steps in the Supreme Court cap a transformative year in which we paved the pathway for President Obama’s support, led the campaign to secure a freedom to marry plank in the Democratic Party platform, and won the freedom to marry at the ballot in Maine, Maryland and Washington while defeating an anti-marriage amendment in Minnesota.

We now must turn this irrefutable momentum into more wins.

Help us make 2013 – like 2012 – a year of triumph and transformation by bringing down DOMA and Prop 8. Make a donation today and make your voice heard in the Supreme Court in the most powerful way possible – with more wins.http://freedomtomarry.org/SCOTUS

Thanks for all you do,

Evan WolfsonFounder and President, Freedom to Marry

I’m on the fence about boycotts, only because I’m not sure they work. But it seems to be something getting attention, so here’s an e-mail I got from Fred Karger about Jane Lynch and the Amway Boycott:

I hope you can see that. Here’s more:

The Amway Boycott covers all holdings of the DeVos family and are listed on: www.BoycottAmway.com They include all Amway divisions, the Orlando Magic NBA team, all 26 Fox Automotive Group Dealerships, MVP and RDV Health Clubs and all the hotels owned by the DeVos family including the Amway Grand Plaza, J W Marriott and the Marriott Courtyard all in in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

Jane Lynch and 3 Elected Officials Say “Boycott Amway”

Actress and Out Magazine “Entertainer of the Year” Jane Lynch endorsed the Amway Boycott recently. She is joined this week by South Dakota’s first openly gay elected official State Representative Joshua Boschee and Chapel Hill, North Carolina Mayor Mark Kleinschmidt and City Council Member Lee Storrow. All three signed Boycott Amway postcards addressed to Amway owner Doug DeVos.

The postcard campaign launched in September has resulted in a deluge of the bright yellow cards mailed in to DeVos, according to Amway Boycott founder and Rights Equal Rights President Fred Karger.

“Multilevel Marketing” Postcard Campaign to Amway Owner Doug DeVos

Following the Amway model, Rights Equal Rights has expanded its Postcard Campaign by asking Amway Boycott supporters to get their friends, family members, neighbors and coworkers to send in the colorful postcards to Amway CEO Doug DeVos. Our supporters will in turn will ask their friends, family members, neighbors and co-workers to join the Boycott and take similar action. According to Karger, we have already sent in hundreds and hundreds of the bright yellow cards to Doug DeVos asking him to match his $500,000 contribution to NOM by contributing an equal amount to LGBT organizations.

“Every single day we mail a batch of our Boycott Amway postcards to Mr. DeVos. We will continue to take actions in order to bring more attention to the Boycott in 2013,” said Karger. “During California’s Prop 8 campaign we boycotted four of the largest contributors to the Yes on 8 campaign and we settled two of them when the companies gave equal amounts or more to LGBT organizations.”

“The Manchester Hotels Boycott was never settled, but owner Doug Manchester, who gave $125,000 to Yes on Prop 8, publically admitted that his Manchester Grand Hyatt in San Diego was losing $1 million per month because of the boycott. He has since sold that hotel, apologized for his contribution through a spokesman and said that he would never give money to take away same-sex marriage again.

If You Don’t Like Chick-fil-A — You’ll Really Hate Amway

“We will be reaching out to many more organizations and individuals to join the Amway Boycott utilizing the theme, “If you didn’t like Chick-fil-A (for all of owner Dan Cathy’s big anti-LGBT contributions and statements) just wait until you hear about Amway,” said Karger.

And here’s something from my inbox from the P’town film society auction:

The Provincetown Film Society Auction closes on December 9, 2012 at 11:00 PM EST.

If you’ve got your heart set on a special item… you still have time to win!

Check Out These Great Buys…You can still bid on any of the special items in our

auction right up to the final seconds of this exciting event. Every tick of the clock brings us closer to the finish line. This may be your last chance to win that special item or to grab a great bargain. So don’t miss out… BID NOW!

Spread the Word!Remind your friends the end is almost here! Just Refer your Friends so they have the chance to offer their support and get some great last-minute deals.Don’t Forget: Every bid supports the Capital Campaign for the renovation and new equipment at Waters Edge Cinema!

Back in the mid-twentieth century, there was this thing called “integration.” It really sparked a lot of emotions, especially in the south.

A lot of people during that time exercised their first amendment rights and protested against integration. Those people had every right to freedom of speech and to protest, and the photos below prove they took advantage of this. They thought mixing races was morally wrong…much the same way there are people today who think same sex marriage is morally wrong.

It’s interesting to see these people so many years later in photos, while we’re living in a different world…with a mixed race President…thanks to a lot of hard work and, ironically, that same Freedom of Speech.

And it’s even more interesting to see how the Palin family practices their right to Freedom of Speech in the twenty-first century so many years later, by supporting a company that believes same sex marriage is morally wrong. It’s even more ironic (and sad) the way history always repeats itself.

I have posted about the Berenstain Bears here before, only I can’t find the link. If someone else can, please let me know.

The reason why I posted about them previously was because the Berenstain family is local, in Solebury, PA, which surrounds New Hope where I live. In my next release, Chase of a Dream, I even mention the Berenstain Bears in my book because it’s Culum Mayfield’s favorite bedtime ritual…I had no idea they were associated with Chick-fil-a.

But in light of what’s been happening with the Chick-fil-a corporation, The Berenstain Bear family has issued this statement regarding their association with Chick-fil-a.

Following the Jim Henson Company’s abrupt decision to end its relationship with Chick-fil-a over the company’s anti-gay donations, the restaurant chain began offering a series of books from the Berenstain Bears series instead, which has apparently horrified The Berenstain Family.

I know the Berenstain family has always been supportive of the LGBT community in this area, and I’m glad they made a statement regarding this. Though I rarely get into anything political, I would have distanced myself from it, too. And I would have been just as horrified to be associated with Chick-fil-a. Of course I agree that Chick-fil-a has a right to their opinions. But we all have a right NOT to support those opinions.

Even though Chick-fil-a has been involved in controversy regarding allegations involving opposition to LGBT rights, I can’t think of anything more wonderful than what they are doing with “Daddy-Daughter Date Night.” I have a recently divorced younger brother who has 50% custody of his three kids…two boys, one girl…and I’m always telling him to make just as much time for his daughter as he does for his sons.

But I have to wonder whether or not Chick-fil-a would be allowed to advertise something like “Daddy-Daughter Date Night,” if they were in e-publishing these days. Of course when normal, rational people read about “Daddy-Daughter Date Night” they immediately assume it’s a nice time for fathers and daughters to bond together. That’s how I took it this morning when I heard about it on the news.

Unfortunately, in digital publishing these days a simple harmless phrase like “Daddy-Daughter” has been taken out of context and turned into something taboo and obscene. This past weekend I spent hours working on a blurb, tag line, and tags for a new release with loveyoudivine.com titled, “Cowboy Howdy.” The book is erotic romance, it is for adults only, but there are no underage characters or anything on this list of “taboo” topics that are being banned these days. (For those who don’t know, this list of taboo topics is basically the same list I’ve seen for the past 20 years in all submission guidelines from publishers.) I’ve never written about underage characters and never will, and yet I spent hours searching for certain words in “Cowboy Howdy” to make sure this book wouldn’t be banned and censored. Frankly, I’m a little concerned about “cowboy,” because “boy” is part of it.

Words like “Daddy, Dad, boy, student, college, etc…” have now become target words used in order to ban books. Here’s an example of two different blurbs from “Cowboy Howdy.”

Example One, which is perfectly harmless:

Payne is a typical young gay man from New York City, with the right haircut, clothes, and attitude. He spends a great deal of time keeping his slim body smooth and well-toned for strong, dominant men. Although he’s not looking forward to his new college roommate at first, he soon discovers things could have been much worse. The minute Payne meets Howdy he can’t take his eyes off his huge shoulders, long legs, and the bulge in his jeans. Howdy’s thick Texas accent and his authentic cowboy hat make Payne cover his crotch with a sweatshirt. When he finds out Howdy is there on a football player scholarship, Payne wants to bury his face in Howdy’s jock strap. In fact, Howdy is the man of Payne’s dreams and he considers seducing him the first day they meet. This leads to an interesting experience that may wind up changing the rest of their first semester. Will Howdy accept Payne’s romantic, subtle advances? Or will he find them repulsive and move out of the dorm room that night?

Here’s the revision, which had to be changed in order to pass through the search engines that are picking up words that target authors and books:

Payne is a typical gay guy from New York City, with the right haircut, clothes, and attitude. He spends a great deal of time keeping his slim body smooth and well-toned for strong, dominant men. Although he’s not looking forward to his new roommate at first, he soon discovers things could have been much worse. The minute Payne meets Howdy he can’t take his eyes off his huge shoulders, long legs, and the bulge in his jeans. Howdy’s thick Texas accent and his authentic cowboy hat make Payne cover his crotch with a sweatshirt. When he finds out Howdy is there to play football, Payne wants to bury his face in Howdy’s jock strap. In fact, Howdy is the full grown man of Payne’s dreams and he considers seducing him the first day they meet. This leads to an interesting experience that may wind up changing the rest of their lives. Will these two full grown consenting adults fall in love and will Howdy accept Payne’s romantic, subtle advances? Or will he find them repulsive and move out that night?

If you notice, words like “young, college, semester,” have been removed from the original. I had to be sure no one would think I wrote something with minors. Even though we assume that everyone in college is over the age of eighteen years old, I even added words like “two full grown consenting adults,” to the revision so I wouldn’t have to deal with the issue of being banned again. When a book is banned, even without cause, the publisher has to go back and search for the words that caused the book to be banned, and then the retail web site has to go through a review process to see if there’s anything in the book that was reason enough to ban it.

These are all harmless words that we use every day in our normal lives. (I removed “scholarship” because I didn’t want the book associated with schools.) There’s nothing obscene or pornographic about them, and yet now authors will have to be on guard to make sure their books don’t get banned. There’s something seriously wrong with this. And I hope it never crosses over into the mainstream, because it would be a shame to have to change “Daddy-Daughter Date Night” to something like “Guy-Parent-Female-Offspring Greasy Fast Food Night.”

It seems there’s a problem with Chick-fil-A now. Evidently, they’ve allegedly contributed money to groups that don’t support same sex marriage…and groups allegedly considered anti-gay. I don’t know anything about Chick-fil-A. I’ve never been to one, so I can’t comment on the product.

But I’m in the minority here. I’ve had e-mails from friends locally who want to disassociate themselves and all local community events from Chick-fil-A. I’ve read other e-mails that take this to a national level.

If you read this article here, about the situation, it’s amazing how slanted it is on one direction.

Protests like the one aimed at Chick-fil-A are partly or even mostly attempts to exhibit the power of the protesters. That aim has nothing to do with winning the argument—is gay marriage a good social policy or a mistaken one?—and everything to do with controlling the narrative. Only those who agree with the protesters are granted a legitimate voice hereafter. Roar loud enough and you may intimidate the target, but that’s of less importance than pumping up excitement among followers and creating a secondary wave of self-censorship among others who correctly surmise that it is dangerous to disagree.

This makes little sense to me. Is this person saying people are dumb and can’t form their own opinions? The objective of protesting is, indeed, to gain power in numbers and to obtain a louder voice. Without protests, and groups protesting in large numbers, there wouldn’t be a glimmer of a chance to change things. As far as I know, no one in the LGBT community is telling anyone they have to agree. No one in the LGBT community is telling people how they should think. What I’m seeing and hearing is that those in the LGBT community and those who support same sex marriage simply aren’t going to support a corporation that supports organizations who are openly against same sex marriage. This is the risk any high profile business runs when it decides to support something that’s highly charged with politics and emotion.

In this article there’s more information, based on facts, and lists of anti-gay organizations that Chick-fil-A has supported.

Chick-Fil-A’s Employment Practices Are Hostile Towards “Sinful” Candidates. Chick-fil-A requires potential franchise operators to disclose their marital status, number of dependents, and involvement in social, church, and other organizations. Employees may be fired for engaging in “sinful” behavior, and Truett Cathy has said he aims to hire workers who are married.

And then here’s the controversy that sparked a lot of what’s been happening locally in the past few days.

In January, a local Chick-fil-A restaurant in Pennsylvania donated food to the group Family Life to put on an event called the “The Art of Marriage: Getting to the Heart of God’s Design.” Both Chick-fil-A and co-sponsor Pennsylvania Family Institute (PFI) were originally listed as sponsors of the “Art Of Marriage” event, although Chick-fil-A scrubbed its name from the event’s advertisements after the controversy began. Both PFI and Family life are virulently anti-gay. [New York Times,2/14/11; Joe. My. God., 1/4/11]

I haven’t heard anyone in the LGBT community try to stop this group. All I’ve heard is that anything even remotely associated with Chick-fil-A will now be boycotted by the LGBT community because of who Chick-fil-A chooses to support. That sounds fair enough to me. It’s called making a qualified decision based on the information given to you. And the LGBT community shouldn’t be expected to support a company that supports organizations that are outright against them.

This piece in the NYT describes the entire ordeal best. Check it out here. Some of the comments are interesting.

On the other hand, Rhonda Cline, a dental hygienist in Atlanta and a devout Christian, has only gotten more outspoken in her support. She was one of nearly a thousand people who logged onto the Chick-fil-A Facebook page to comment on the issue.

“I applaud a company that in this climate today will step out on a limb the way the Constitution allows them to,” Ms. Cline said in an interview. “This is the United States, so we should be able to practice our business the way we like.”

I couldn’t agree with Ms. Cline more. I applaud her. We all have these rights. And the LGBT community has the same right to back off from anything Chick-fil-A related. The only right the LGBT community doesn’t have is the ability for same sex couples to be joined in a legal union that protects them against all kinds of things that range from inheritance taxes to power of attorney.

If you want to read even more, there are tons of links out there. What I just posted is only the most basic information. All I know is that when any company in business for profit supports anything this controversial, they run the risk of losing business and they deserve what they get. And that’s just a plain hard fact of life.

Author of over 100 published LGBT romance novels and stories, including AN OFFICER AND HIS GENTLEMAN and best selling VIRGIN BILLIONAIRE SERIES. Hates beets.
New Hope, PA Palm Springs, CA
ryan-field.blogspot.com